Zippy the Pinhead

Thursday, March 21, 2019Mar 21, 2019

Bill Griffith has been bringing Zippy's brand of absurdity to the masses since 1970, and there is often nothing better for restoring faith in the nonsense that is this world than taking a moment to read today's Zippy cartoon.

Zippy lives in the town of Dingburg, a mystical Shangri-La where the diners never close and the architecture of roadside America stands side by side with modern art and metaphors made flesh. He's the modern remix of the King's Fool--at once possessed of otherworldly wisdom and innocence.

Zippy is also, to his roots, kind. He is curious, and not a little magical, and consistently able to find joy in everything.

Zippy's foil in his metaphysical questing is Griffy, who is perpetually anxious, analytical, judgmental, and all too attached to the "real world." The two aren't quite adversaries, but Griffy often provides a counter perspective to Zippy's whimsy that at once feels more grounded in reality and frequently all the sadder for it.

Zippy is a real comic lover's comic, a comic that never tires of exploring the way a few panels of images can come together to tell a story or send a message that simply couldn't exist in another medium. It never ceases to delight, whether it's Bill's faithful renditions of architectural Americana, or the way Zippy seems to go on through life, irrepressible, in a way that inspires us to let life be a little more silly.

Bill Griffith

“Are we having fun yet?” This non sequitur utterance by the clown-suited philosopher/media star, Zippy the Pinhead, has become so oft-quoted that it is now in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Zippy has in fact become an international icon, even appearing on the (former) Berlin Wall. Zippy’s creator, Bill Griffith, began his comic’s career in New York City in 1969.

His first strips were published in the East Village Other and Screw magazine and featured an angry amphibian named Mr. the Toad.

He ventured to San Francisco in 1970 to join the burgeoning underground comics movement and made his home there until 1998. His first major comic book titles included Tales of Toad and Young Lust, a best-selling series parodying romance comics of the time. He was co-editor of Arcade, The Comics Revue for its seven issue run in the mid-70s and worked with the important underground publishers throughout the '70s and up to the present: Print Mint, Last Gasp, Rip Off Press, Kitchen Sink and Fantagraphics Books. The first Zippy the Pinhead strip appeared in Real Pulp #1 (Print Mint) in 1970. The strip went weekly in 1976, first in the Berkeley Barb and then syndicated nationally through Rip Off Press.

In 1980, weekly syndication was taken over by Zipsynd, later renamed Pinhead Productions, which is owned and operated by the artist. Zippy also appeared in the pages of the National Lampoon and High Times from 1977 to 1984. In 1985, the San Francisco Examiner asked Griffith to do Zippy six days a week, and in 1986, he was approached by King Features Syndicate to take the daily strip to a national audience. Sunday color strips began running in 1990. Today, Zippy appears in many newspapers and newspaper websites worldwide. There have been over a dozen paperback collections of Griffith’s work and numerous comic book and magazine appearances, both here and abroad.

He became an irregular contributor to The New Yorker in 1994. Griffith’s inspiration for Zippy came from several sources, among them the sideshow “pinheads” in Tod Browning’s 1932 film, "Freaks." The name “Zippy” springs from “Zip the What-Is-It?,” a “freak” exhibited by P.T. Barnum from 1864 to 1926. Zip’s real name was William Henry Jackson, born in 1842. Coincidentally, Griffith discovered in 1975 – five years after creating Zippy – that he bears the same name. He was born William Henry Jackson Griffith in 1944, named after his great-grandfather, a well-known photographer of the Old West, William H. Jackson (1842-1941).

Griffith presently lives and works in East Haddam, Conn. with his wife, cartoonist Diane Noomin.

Zippy

Zippy is the “wise fool.” He knows nothing at all and everything at once. Media-soaked, he has the attention span of a channel surfer. He’s giddy from information overload. His mind works in a distinctly non-linear fashion, leap-frogging from one thought to the next, creating a speech pattern that closely resembles the swing of improvisational jazz. Though his behavior may appear “surreal,” he’s really making his own kind of sense of the world. His seeming “non sequitur” style is really more of a rearranging of subjects, objects and emotions, flowing like poetry. Zippy thrives on an additive-rich, high MSG diet and a hefty dose of celebrity-spotting. He’s fueled by Ding Dongs and taco sauce. Of course, there’s an intentionally satiric edge to Zippy, but this never takes a back seat to his strong attachment and loyalty to those around him. When he’s not “escaping into the real world,” he's exploring his hometown, “Dingburg,” where everybody is a pinhead and the donut shops and bowling alleys are open 24 hours.

Zippy has been described by Robin Williams as “a word processor with dyslexia,”and by Time magazine as “instantly obsessed with whatever trend or object passes in front of him. Griffith has actually made room for essays and meditations on the ‘funnies’ page. No other strip challenges the reader in such a smart way.”

Griffy

Griffy is Zippy’s partner in “surreal” social criticism. He never met a phenomenon about which he didn’t have an instant opinion. All-too-rooted in the real world, he’s the “bad cop” to Zippy’s “good cop” as they affect and react to the “real world.” Underneath Griffy’s judgmental nature, though, is a lot of insecurity and self-doubt. Try as he may to keep his emotions in check, they find a way out. He often uses his analytical powers as a weapon (or a shield) in his battle with modern civilization. Griffy is also a part-time astronomer who’d rather turn his high-powered telescope down at the city than up at the stars.

Zerbina

Zerbina is Zippy’s full-figured, occasional wife. Though she’s a pinhead too, she’s a little more “rooted” than Zippy. Not that she doesn’t forget as often as he does that they’re married — and have two kids. She’s strongly self-confident and not at all eager to please, and she clearly marches to the beat of a different drummer. A modern woman, she doesn’t define herself solely as a wife and mother, though constantly embracing and rejecting those roles. Of course, she says and does everything through the pinhead filter (not "1,2,3" but more like "2,3,17"). She enjoys shopping, waiting for hours to connect to her Internet server and deconstructing the post-modern nuclear family.

Dingburg (Zippy's hometown)

A few years ago, Zippy’s circle of friends began to expand beyond the usual “cast of characters” to a wider world of other people like Zippy — other pinheads. More and more muu muu-clad men and women started to arrive until one day the whole thing just reached “critical mass.”

Griffith then thought, “Where do all these friends of Zippy live? Do they live in the ‘real world,’ which Zippy has been seen escaping into for years—or do they live apart, in a pinhead world of their own?”

Thus, Dingburg was born—“The City Inhabited Entirely by Pinheads.” It even has a motto: “Going too far is half the pleasure of not getting anywhere.” Dingburg is a place where Zippy’s wacky “rules” are the norm and everyone plays 24-hour Skeeball and worships at the feet of giant Muffler Men. Zippy has, at last, found a place where he fits in, polka dots, topknot and all.

Claude Funston

Claude is a perennially lovesick urban hillbilly with a cowlick on steroids whose real life closely parallels the guests on tabloid TV talk fests. He’s originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he worked in a bowling ball factory. A searcher for life’s hidden blueprint, he’s always on the lookout for the "ideal" woman he can never quite find. He’s a barroom philosopher who dispenses trailer park wisdom to anyone who’ll listen mostly, it’s Zippy. He’s soulful, emotionally needy and full of comedic self-pity. Claude believes everything he reads in the National Enquirer. His dreams die hard and, as a result, he harbors a “dark side,” full of suspicion and paranoia. Fortunately, his darker urges don’t dominate him, and he comes off a little like a "Don Quixote of love.”

Mr. Toad

Mr. Toad is, essentially, a malevolent force. He enjoys seeing other people squirm as a result of his words and deeds. His motto is, “Screw them before they can screw you.” He’s a big, green sociopath with a permanent chip on his shoulder, full of bully vengeance. But he's also something of a philosopher, dispensing dark aphorisms to Zippy and Griffy from his barstool. He hates show biz and celebrities — but he loves to hate them. He wears his alienation proudly, aware that it’s the source of not just his anger, but his power. He’s cynical, abusive and very large. “Don’t goad the Toad.”

Shelf-Life (S.L.)

Shelf-Life ("S.L.") is always looking for the “next big thing,” especially if the merchandising rights are available. He never stops scheming and dreaming. He’s the poor man’s Donald Trump, only a little less artful about his deals. Though he’s not consciously out to hurt people, he can rationalize any pain he causes ("Hey, pal, it’s a dirty business"). He’s young and “entitled.” He feels he deserves to succeed and is oblivious to everyone else’s needs. The only person who likes him (aside from his loan shark) is Zippy. When he speaks of “grief” or “personal loss,” it’s most likely because he had to switch accountants. S.L. is a streetwise hustler and a loner, and since no one ever helped him, why should he help anyone else? He wears a tight, black sweater emblazoned with ever-changing sayings (“Reach Out and Touch Someone Else,” “Can We Network?,” “Make My Deal,” etc.), which can also reflect his inner thoughts.

Fuelrod

Fuelrod and Meltdown are Zippy and Zerbina’s twin offspring. Though they have “regular kid” qualities, they often act less childlike than their parents. They try valiantly to negotiate the shoals of adolescence and decode their progenitors’ puzzling behavior and bizarre advice. They’re

Meltdown

They’re caught somewhere between “pinhead” and “normal,” kind of like the children of immigrants, juggling “old country” and American values. Typical interaction: Zerbina: “Turn that Metallica CD up, Fuelrod! I can still hear myself think!” Fuelrod: (peeved) “Yes, Mother."

Lippy

Zippy’s twin, yet diametrically opposite, brother. Lippy dresses in black and thrives on misery — his own, as well as others. He only enters Zippy’s life for one purpose: to try and make him unhappy. Good luck, Lippy.

The Doggie

An enormous dachshund head mounted on a pole, the Doggie is the last remaining vestige of a defunct fast-food chain named “Doggie Diner.” It stands on a corner of town Zippy walks by almost every day. Zippy and the Doggie have long talks about human emotions and stuff.